Angela Bassett has always been known to have class, but now she also has an honorary degree to show for it, which the legendary actress was given by Old Dominion University this past weekend. Bassett, 63, shared the news with her followers on social media on Saturday (May 7), posting a photo of herself wearing her graduation gown and holding a frame containing her degree. “Hey Everybody you good?” She wrote. “I’m so happy and humbled to receive an honorary doctorate from @olddominionu today! Education is truly the KEY!”
Bassett, who was also the keynote speaker for Old Dominion’s 2022 commencement ceremony, shared a few words of wisdom during her speech, in which she urged the school’s graduates to take inspiration from their school mascot, the lion, in their journeys moving forward.
“Throughout your time at ODU, many of you have proudly looked at the monarch—a royal crown on a lion’s head—as a salute to your school’s rich history, strength, pride, fearlessness, royalty,” the Academy Award nominee said while addressing the crowd. She continued, “And thanks to a little film called Black Panther, I think I know a little bit about royalty… well, fictional royalty at least.”
Angela Bassett’s latest academic accolade marks her third time being granted an honorary doctorate degree from an institution of higher learning. In 2018, she received her first honorary doctorate from her own alma mater, Yale University, before being given her second by Morehouse College in 2020.